


Charlatans

by shoryubug



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alya Césaire Bashing, F/M, Fake Ladybug AU, Lila Rossi Bashing, Lila Rossi's Lies Are Exposed
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-08
Updated: 2020-07-01
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:00:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,585
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23064379
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shoryubug/pseuds/shoryubug
Summary: After a five day trip with Gina, it was like everything in the world had come to a screeching halt the moment that she read a single text from Alya.>>>GIRL, YOU WON'T BELIEVE IT, LADYBUG IS A CONFIRMED STUDENT HERE IN OUR CLASS!She felt her heart contract, no...no they couldn't be close to finding her identity. No. This wasn't possible, she was so careful!As the panic set in she couldn't bring herself to respond to Alya. "Tikki...we might have a problem, Alya said someone in our class is Ladybug..." she whispered.As of 03/11/20, Chapter One has undergone updates.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 51
Kudos: 401





	1. Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery

It had come out of nowhere when Gina had decided to visit, and pull Marinette out of school, leaving the poor girl without any notice and without any ability to contact her friends about what had happened, instead just her parents had known, as it was a surprise for her after all, Tuesday night Gina came like the whisper of a breeze before a storm, powerful and fresh, but pushing all the right buttons to make a person comfortable and happy, and Marinette couldn’t deny it, being around her Nonna made her happy, so to go out and traverse Brussels, Vianden, and Milan, then come back home to Paris had seemed like a dream come true in a way. While Marinette knew she wouldn’t be able to spend as much time as she might have preferred with Gina, the small bit that she was being allotted for this trip was more than enough for her. Sending Marinette and Gina up to rest together for their early day, getting up at around the same time that Tom was to begin prep work for the bakery just to ensure that they’d make their seats on the train at Gard Nour station in order to reach Brussels effectively, Marinette let out a sigh of joy. 

Of course, her parents had been more than certain to pack up her clothing for this surprise, gathering as much as they could for her in a duffel bag, though now, they had no idea of the actual true necessities, a satellite phone that she’d been slowly paying off in order to keep in touch with the world about what was going on in France from nearly anywhere else in the world, all in preparation since her fourteenth birthday when Gina had made her the promise about taking her away for some time, and the horse miraculous glasses, which lay hidden inside the gramophone that Wang Fu had left to her after he passed the title of Guardian over to her. Softly she pressed in the combination to open the device, and with a nimble quickness her fingers softly opened each compartment until she found the correct one and pulled out the glasses, setting them in center of the neck hole in her shirt, ready to use should the time call for it, though now only appearing to be a cute accessory to anyone that asked. 

“I hope that I can actually have some fun on this trip, you know, without the usual Ladybug worries...” Marinette whispered to Tikki who zoomed out of her purse and nuzzled up to Marinette’s cheek. 

“I think you don’t have too much to worry about! After all, Hawkmoth has been a little slow lately, so maybe you’ll be okay!” Tikki offered as Marinette sighed. 

“Should I give Chat the number to my satellite phone in case anything goes wrong, or should I just keep updates from the Ladyblog and just let him know I’ll be gone for a bit?” Marinette asked as Tikki held a small hand up to her own face and gave it a small bit of thought, the anxiousness creeping through Marinette’s features. 

“You should definitely let him know you’ll be gone, but if you want to keep your identity safe, don’t tell him about the satellite phone, just tell him you’ll be keeping updated with the Ladyblog! He might be able to help you get information from there faster in case Alya is slow to update!” Tikki offered as Marinette nodded, calling on the transformation magic then ducking into her closet, in case her parents had chosen that moment to pop their heads in. Pulling her yo-yo out she set up the call feature and was sent straight to his voicemail, which...made sense, especially if he wasn’t exactly active at that moment. 

“Hey Chat! I just wanted to let you know that I’m going to be going to be out of Paris for a while---” she began before she realized that if he had known her as Marinette...which he seemed to already, then that might complicate things from her own absence...especially if he was going to go to Alya at all to get her to update the Ladyblog in a timely manner. “Uhh...my family wanted to visit Lyon and I’ll be out of school and I can’t exactly avoid going with them, but if there are any problems here in Paris I’ll come in with the horse miraculous, so no need to worry about me! But I will be keeping tabs on the state of things from the notices on the Ladyblog, so as long as there’s a notice on there I’ll make an appearance!” she offered, before closing the yo-yo, hanging up the call, then detransforming. “We should get some rest Tikki...” Marinette offered as Tikki nodded in approval, letting loose a small yawn.

The trip with Gina had been more than Marinette had ever expected, getting to visit the Cathedrale St-Michel was amazing, the architecture of it alone was just so fascinating, and for all of her life Marinette had only really had interests in fashion due to Gina, she had never thought to look into buildings, but now it was as if an entire new world was opening up to her, giving her more room to explore, but then going off to the Place Royale had given her the same level of attraction and affection toward this new field of wonder, the various shapes, the way everything was held together, how something so historic could still hold so much presence in the lives of so many people, and how it alone could bring in people like her and Gina to envision and experience from it...it was like a fascinating and beautiful new avenue, and suddenly she was lit with excitement from every which way...and this was just the first part of the first day! 

The Belgian Royal Museum of Fine Arts was another avenue that gave Marinette a lot of inspiration, Gina following after her, a bit bored herself with the idea of a museum, though Marinette had all but ran through the area, her sketchbook in hand, sketching up a storm as she gazed longingly at each and every painting in the museum, her mind fluttering about. The only problem with all of it was that she had yearned to take photos with her normal phone, but knowing the roaming charges would be astronomical, she opted against it, and when Gina had remained too far behind, Marinette had taken a moment to give Tikki a small treat inside her purse, and allowed for Tikki to come out for a brief second to view her sketchbook and the painting she stood in front of, sharing a soft moment with her wonderful companion. Soon after though, due to Gina’s boredom, the pair had left to the Atomium to take many goofy photos together and get some lunch, ending the tour of Brussels at the Mont des Arts, before Gina rented a motorcycle and Marinette had stuffed the horse miraculous in her purse, practically chaining it across her front, as they rode the next three hours out to Luxembourg. 

Finding a hotel for the night, Marinette had been certain to check up on the Ladybug one more time, having absently checked it moments throughout the day as if it were second nature, still coming up with nothing she was overjoyed to find just that...there was nothing. Another day when Hawkmoth wasn’t going to make an appearance. 

The few days of exploring with Gina were absolutely wonderful, doing a tree climbing course in Vianden and proving to Gina that she was fitter than she might seem (though that was entirely thanks to her job as Ladybug!), going on the chairlift and looking down at the town below, visiting the bronze bust of Victor Hugo and taking photos with it, then visiting the Chateau de Vianden to close that day out...it was almost surreal, she couldn’t believe how small the world looked from above in the chairlift. She’d been in planes a few times before in her past, but to actually watch as something gets smaller below her without the benefit of her Ladybug suit was strange and exhilarating, and then to outdo her grandmother while climbing the trees was something else in itself. Gina had attributed it to all of her energy, but she and Tikki both knew better as they joked while they waited for the others in the tree climbing course to meet her up above. And throughout that day she also continued to check in on everything gradually, though before they had left the Chateau de Vianden and had taken a plane out to Milan, she had checked again, still coming up empty from the Ladyblog. 

The day in Milan had been strange...it dragged on for Marinette, she didn’t really like the city, because it had been too stuffy, there were too many religious things to visit, and she just wasn’t all that interested, but she stuck it out for Gina, as Gina had done for her back in Brussels, and eventually the two had gone to have lunch together, both agreeing that after visiting the Opera at Teatro alla Scala, they would make their way back to Paris, and then spend whatever time was left getting ice cream and cooling down with the rest of the family. 

When they had finally taken a plane back home to Paris and the two of them had gotten to the bakery, Sabine handed Marinette a packet of homework, with a note on it from Alya, which simply said “CHECK YOUR MESSAGES GIRL!” and Marinette waited on it, while she wanted to give her friend some attention, she was more interested in spending some more time with Gina and her parents, going off to have dinner with them, and when she was finally ready to get upstairs, she turned her satellite phone off, turned her normal phone on, put the horse miraculous away, and then went to check her phone for the messages Alya wanted her to read, and it was as if everything in the world had come to a screeching halt the moment that she read a single text from Alya. 

>>> ** _GIRL, YOU WON'T BELIEVE IT, LADYBUG IS A CONFIRMED STUDENT HERE IN OUR CLASS!_**

She felt her heart contract, no...no they couldn't be close to finding her identity. No. This wasn't possible, she was so careful!

As the panic set in she couldn't bring herself to respond to Alya. "Tikki...we might have a problem, Alya said someone in our class is Ladybug..." she whispered.

"What?!" Tikki's high-pitched squeal painted her ears.

"I don't...I don't know how this could have happened!" she whispered.

"Well...if Alya didn't say anything about Ladybug being you, maybe they don't really know yet!" Tikki pointed out and finally Marinette was able to breathe in relief, her heartbeat finally slowing to a more steady pace.

"Y-you're right! I shouldn't worry! I should go to bed...tomorrow we can figure this out!" she whispered as Tikki flew to her pillow and Marinette curled up in the bed herself. All that she had hoped was that whatever was going on, Chat hadn't heard about it...but that was wishful thinking, wasn't it? She had been absent from the city for a few days, which means that whatever Alya had said was probably on the Ladyblog... _OH MY GOD IT WAS PROBABLY ON THE LADYBLOG!_ She thought, reaching for her phone she began to scroll upward before Tikki flew through it and huffed, glaring Marinette in the face.

"It's time to sleep!" Tikki stated as Marinette sighed.

"I know but I just thought we should check the Ladyblog in case Alya posted something on it!" Marinette rationalized.

"No! You can worry about it tomorrow! Besides, you've been checking the Ladyblog all week on the trip, and right now you need a clear and level head so sleep!" Tikki insisted, and with hesitation, Marinette relented.

For once, she hadn't slept through her alarm, and rolled off of her bed, rushing through her morning routine, and zipping off to school after she had finished. She had a lot of time to spare, which was a surprise, but as she made her way through the school doors and into her class, where she found Alya sitting, her best friend's eyes went wide for a minute before getting back to normal, as if a realization washed over her for a moment then faded.

"Hey, Alya! So what was with your text? I would have responded sooner but as soon as I got home I was just exhausted and kind of passed out, and this morning I forgot to respond! I'm so sorry!" she apologized before Alya's eyes perked up again.

"You are NOT going to believe the scoop I got for you! There's this new girl in our class, Mallory, and she's Ladybug! She even has the Ladybug earrings and looks EXACTLY like her!" Alya whispered. "She even knows stuff about the Miraculous that only Ladybug would know!" she whispered, which deflated Marinette's mood. Well...at least...it wasn't that her identity was outed.

"Oh...I mean...are you sure she's really Ladybug? It...seems a little too good to be true..." Marinette offered, which Alya rolled her eyes at.

"Are you going to get upset at this girl like you do at Lila because she's also spending time with Adrien?" Alya asked with a huff, and Marinette rolled her eyes. Of course, it always came down to jealousy, even if she didn't actually know that this Mallory girl was interested in Adrien.

"Alya...I don't know anything about this girl...I've been gone a few days, remember? Besides, if Ladybug is adamant about identities being a secret then why would she tell you before she told Chat Noir?" she offered, which Alya again huffed at.

"She didn't just tell me, she told the whole class!"

"Well then that makes it even less likely that she's actually Ladybug, don't you think?" Marinette stated flatly before a girl who could almost be her double walked up the aisle and let out an angry huff.

"You must be the girl Lila told me about, Marinette, right? Well you don't have to believe that I'm Ladybug, but you should at least not try to drag me into your drama!" she snapped as Marinette rolled her eyes.

"Then you shouldn't lie to the class about something so serious." Marinette countered as the girl scoffed and stomped up the stairs to her seat in the back. Whoever that girl was, she definitely wasn't even a good replica of Ladybug, all she had were similar looks to Marinette's own, nothing more, she clearly couldn’t replicate the way that she carried herself as Ladybug, she stood too straight and poised, and even as Ladybug that was something that Marinette struggled with, and if anyone actually believed that Mallory was Ladybug then they really were blind.


	2. Ending.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Due to unforseen circumstances an announcement must be made.

Hi all,  
Due to the massive outpouring of verbal harassment that I have received, I will no longer be updating any of my sites or stories after today. 

I apologize for leaving this community, but I have to think about my own mental health and safety, as the awful messages from folks, (including death threats and requests that I commit suicide) - but it's not safe for me.

Wish you all the best,  
Shoryubug


End file.
